1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fiber and the method of making the same, and more particularly, to a fiber having a core doped with chromium and a glass cladding, and the method of making the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Because of the breakthrough in the technology of fabricating optical fibers, it is possible to use the bandwidth of 300 nm including 1.3 μm to 1.6 μm in optical communication. The greatly increased communication capacity results in the emergence of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) technology, enabling tens of channels with different wavelengths transmitted simultaneously in an optical fiber. In consequence, the requirement of spectral characterization of all the optical components used in the optical transport networking systems raises.
Amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) light source has low coherence due to its wideband characteristic. Such characteristic enables the ASE light source to be a light source of a WDM system of sliced spectrum. In the WDM system, a light source module having multiple wavelengths is used. If a distributed feedback (DFB) laser is used for achieving multiple wavelengths, the cost and complexity of the system will increase. A wideband light source with a spectrum slicing technique, nevertheless, can generate a light source of multiple wavelengths easily. The conventional method of generating wideband light source from the ASE light source is to utilize an optical fiber doped with rare earth ions. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,658,189 disclosed an ASE light source by amplifying an Er-doped fiber with a pump wavelength of 980 nm. The bandwidth of the ASE light source is 80 nm, which includes a band of 1530 nm to 1610 nm wavelength. However, the band will be insufficient because of the greatly increased communication capacity.
There are many conventional methods for fabricating crystal fiber. U.S. Pat. No. 4,421,721 discloses a laser heated pedestal growth (LHPG) method, which can grow single crystal with small diameter easily and has the advantages of high growth speed, low consumption, easy of control and no crucible pollution. However, the smaller the diameter of the crystal fiber is, the greater the propagation loss will be caused. In order to reduce the propagation loss, the grown crystal fiber must be cladded.
The conventional cladding methods are described as follows.
1. In Diffusion
There are two types of such method. One is depositing an oxide layer on the outer surface of the crystal fiber, then diffusing the oxide layer into the crystal fiber by heating so that the refractive index of the outer portion of the crystal fiber is relatively low and forms the waveguide effect. The disadvantage of this type is that it is time consuming, needing about ten hours to diffuse the oxide layer into the crystal fiber. Another type is implanting ions into the crystal fiber by high-energy ion beam so that the refractive index of the outer portion of the crystal fiber implanted with ions is relatively low and forms the waveguide effect. The disadvantage of this type is expensive instrument.
2. Out Diffusion
In this method, the waveguide effect is achieved by the gradient index caused by the ions doped in the crystal fiber, because the doping ions diffuse outward during the growth process of the crystal fiber. The disadvantage of this method is that the waveguide effect is relative to the characteristic of doping ions because the concentration distributions caused by different ions will have different refractive indices.
3. Electron Gun (E-Gun) Deposition
The outer surface of a crystal fiber is covered with an evaporated oxide layer by an electron gun, wherein the refractive index of the oxide layer is lower than that of the crystal fiber. A disadvantage of this method is that the interface between the oxide layer and the surface of the crystal fiber is not dense enough and will transform according outside atmosphere.
4. Dip Coating
A crystal fiber is merged in a solution containing glass particles at first. After the glass particles have deposited on the surface of the crystal fiber, the crystal fiber is taken out of the solution and is dried by fire. Then cladding is achieved by repeating the merging and drying procedures several times. The disadvantage of this method is that it is time consuming.
5. Extrusion Method
Low-melting point glass is disposed in a funnel made by fused silica and is molten to liquid state when the funnel is heated under suitable conditions. Then, a crystal fiber is disposed in the funnel and extruded from a thinner end of the funnel slowly. Therefore, cladding is achieved while the crystal fiber is being extruded. The disadvantage of this method is that bubbles may occur in the space between the crystal fiber and the cladding glass.
Consequently, there is an existing need for a novel and improved fiber and the method of making the same to solve the above-mentioned problems.